Schools scramble to update policies and procedures to combat a growing teen trend.

They are hard to detect – tiny devices that look like markers or lip gloss, easily hidden in backpacks among a jumble of school supplies.

Teens can fill them with simple flavor cartridges, but they can also load them with marijuana oils or nicotine inserts that smell like watermelon or piña colada or nothing at all.

They are electronic cigarettes, and their sudden explosion in popularity on school campuses in the past 12 months is catching school officials across the state by surprise.

“This is coming on fast,” said Greg Wolfe, a state Department of Education health education consultant. “There are types of behavior that can catch you unaware.”

Although e-cigarettes have been around for several years, the sudden proliferation is matched only by the surge in destructive prescription drug use among teens a decade ago, Wolfe said.

“We are hearing that the number one topic among these school districts is the rapid onset among teens of using these electronic devices,” Wolfe said.

So, with the new school year approaching, school officials, prevention coordinators and campus safety officers are scrambling to update policies, educate parents and figure out the best way to combat the trend.

Indeed, the e-cigarette craze is so new that most of Orange County's 28 school districts have yet to include the devices in discipline and tobacco-free campus policies, said Stacy Deeble-Reynolds, the county Department of Education's prevention coordinator.

“We have districts where administrators have not even heard of e-cigarettes or how they work,” Deeble-Reynolds said. But that doesn't mean kids aren't using them.

“I have heard reports of students at junior highs being caught with e-cigarettes or paraphernalia,” said Joanne Fawley, president of the Anaheim Union High School District's teachers union.

There are a variety of styles among electronic smokes, including e-hookahs; some are disposable, others are rechargeable; some look like pens or markers; others are clearly high-tech smoking devices. They all convert liquid flavor packs, including nicotine, into mist that can be inhaled by smokers.

But, so far, most information on how prevalent they are on campuses is anecdotal – because the devices are so easy to conceal.

“They are being used in classrooms and teachers aren't even aware of what they are,” said Kimberlee Homer Vagadori, project director of the California Youth Advocacy Network. “The hookah pen looks like a pen, and you can just use it in class, chewing on it, and no one will notice it unless you are blowing out a lot of vapor.”

UNCERTAINTY ABOUNDS

Tobacco prevention coordinators say they don't know why popularity of the electronic vaporizing among teens surged in just the last six to 12 months. But they have a few theories.

One possibility: They come in cool colors and fun flavors, and manufacturers recently increased marketing efforts.

There is also less of a stigma attached to e-cigarettes than traditional tobacco products, Vagadori said.

“I think the youth are thinking, ‘This is not tobacco,' ” Vagadori said. “We hear all the time that it's just water vapor.”

Indeed, many adult e-cigarette users say the devices have helped them quit smoking, and tout their lack of tar or carbon monoxide.

But there is little data yet to indicate the long-term health impacts of the devices. Because they contain nicotine, the products can be addictive, Deeble-Reynolds said.

Still, even school officials tasked with preventing teen e-cigarette use say they aren't sure if the devices are all that bad.

“It is a difficult one because kids don't see it as that big of a deal and it's hard to argue that it's dangerous, other than smoking the nicotine,” said Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Gunsolley, a school resource officer at Laguna Hills High School.

There may even be a small benefit to their use: Gunsolley said as e-cigarette use has climbed, he's seen traditional cigarette use on campus drop.

“At the beginning of the year, kids were smoking more cigarettes,” he said.

HARD TO PENALIZE

Penalizing students caught on campuses with e-cigarettes or vaping devices is also difficult.

To begin with, school safety officers have to catch the students.

“They can be odorless, and when they walk around on campus it's hard to see with 3,000 kids running around,” said Orange County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Michael Pixomatis. “You can't just go up and search every kid.”

And then there's the matter of what to do with students once you catch them.

Although it is illegal to sell or furnish e-cigarettes to minors, there is no law prohibiting minors from possessing them, said Sgt. Manuel Chavez of the Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department.

“There is really no law for us to enforce at this point,” Chavez said.

The Sheriff's Department, which provides safety officers to schools in more than a dozen Orange County cities, cites students under a penal code that prohibits minors from possessing tobacco and tobacco paraphernalia, Pixomatis said.

But Chavez said his department doesn't issue citations because the code pertains to tobacco and contains no language about e-cigarettes. Instead, Chavez said Santa Ana officers write administrative referrals and confiscate the vapes.

It's unclear if e-cigarettes should be considered paraphernalia, or even how to tell if they are being used for nicotine instead of nicotine-free flavor inserts, law enforcement officials said.

“It's all vague and not spelled out as much as we would all like to be comfortable with,” said Ed Harrison, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department.

DRUG CONCERNS

That vagueness, however, disappears when the devices are used for smoking marijuana oils or concentrated marijuana wax.

If a Santa Ana school police officer catches a student using an e-cigarette for marijuana, they arrest the student for drug possession, Chavez said. Of the roughly dozen e-cigarettes Gunsolley confiscated last year, three were used for marijuana.

Gunsolley brings one of the devices when he gives presentations on emerging drug trends. It looks like a small, pink rectangular lip gloss. But when Gunsolley presses a button on the side, it emits a faint sizzling sound, and a small cloud of nearly odorless marijuana vapor pours out of the top.

One way of using e-cigarettes for marijuana is called waxing, Gunsolley said. The term describes a process where THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is extracted from the plant and turned into butter or wax.

Gunsolley said he makes a point of going to e-cigarette websites to get a sense of the most current products so he can keep an eye out for them.

“We are always a little behind, because the nature of teenagers is that they are so secretive,” Gunsolley said.

PREVENTING TEEN USE

The Sheriff's Department is planning a series of public presentations in August to educate parents about the devices and other emerging trends, Gunsolley said.

“As a parent community, I think we are just learning about the drug delivery application of these devices,” said Martha McNicholas, president of the Capistrano Unified Council of PTSA.

Even if campuses haven't seen issues this year, they acknowledge e-cigarettes may pose future challenges.

“It could become a tricky problem in a year or so,” Fountain Valley High principal Chris Herzfeld said. “We could see an uptick in usage for a while, but I don't see it as a big problem right now.”

To get a sense of how best to direct prevention efforts, the state is adding – for the first time ever – a question about e-cigarette use to its biennial Healthy Kids Survey. The agency will distribute the survey to schools this fall, and release the results sometime in 2015.

Prevention coordinators aren't waiting until then to tackle the issue. Deeble-Reynolds said the Orange County Department of Education plans to send out information this summer to local districts “strongly encouraging” them to update school policies to include language banning the devices and clearly specifying penalties for bringing them to school.

A few districts, like Huntington Beach City School District, already include e-cigarettes in their campus policies. Others, like Anaheim Union, are working with the OCDE to update their policies, Deeble-Reynolds said.

Capistrano Unified updated its tobacco-free policy at the end of last year to include the e-cigarettes. Starting next year, students in Capistrano Unified bringing e-cigarettes or other electronic vaporizing devices to campus will be subject to a minimum penalty of Saturday school for possession, and up to a five-day suspension if caught using the devices.

“It is one thing to say ‘this is outlawed,' ” Deeble-Reynolds said. “It is another to say, ‘This is what we are going to do if you get caught.' ”

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